Choices and Chances

Kat Dart

(10/2010) Throughout high school, I tend to get a lot of awkward questions. Some of the more thought provoking ones tend to make me stop and think for a second. And some of the weirder questions are just plain, well, to say the least, weird.

Sometimes I play avoidance strategies and I know many of my friends also do so. For example, last week, I was asked "What is the weirdest thing going-on in my life at the moment" by some totally random stranger.

First of all, has anyone under the age of sixteen ever heard of a little something called tact, discretion, or sensitivity?

What gives someone the impression that I'm willing to give an answer about my personal life to a totally random person (And he was a freshman. Was I like that as a freshie?)? I did however choose to humor the guy with a response.

My response was pretty simple: Writer's Block sucks. As a writer (Obviously, why else would I love doing this?) I have been hit with writer's block before. It's so weird, because I'll have a great idea, sit down and be poised to write and just be unable to do so. Give me fiction and I can have three pages down in eight minutes, ask me to do a history report or a diary page and I’m stuck for a long time.

And so, finally being born from a bad case of writer’s block, this month’s topic comes in.

What do you do when you need help? What if it is rumor and gossip being played out at school? What if it has credibility? What if it is a friend making what you think may be a bad choice?

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is deciding when you need to step forward, or let others take the stage. It’s always amazingly difficult to choose what way is the right way. There is so much that I need to consider when choosing to take action.

Do I step forward and say out loud that something is wrong? Should I work from behind the curtain, not revealing my part but doing something that may only partially work? Do I need to get others involved? Do I just sit in the crowd and watch the train wreck occur?

Being outspoken is a sure-fire way to get attention, but am I willing to take the chance that everyone sees me as a drama queen and I’ll lose any credibility? What about working from behind, not letting people know I am there – the chance that whatever I am about to do will fail is greater.

What about other people? Sure, I could reinforce myself with making sure I have definite support, but is it right to get other people involved?

Finally, and this is the hardest bit – is it even right for me to get involved? Maybe it would be better if I let the others work it out.

But then, the greatest question will haunt me – what If I could have done something and I didn’t? What if I should have done the opposite of whatever I chose to do?

What if I could have stopped it, but I didn’t because I was to scared to come forwards?

What if I did choose to do something, but there was never anything to worry about?

I know that a lot of people think very differently when it comes to this type of situation, and I know that as teenagers we tend to care more about our place on the social scale rather than people you barely know. Taking a chance that can cause ‘social suicide’ is one of the hardest things to do in high school. Mostly, once you tale the chance, you can’t turn around and say "I changed my mind." You aren’t in line for a roller coaster that you just realized goes upside down. You can’t quit. You can’t step down. You have to solve the problem in front of you, and let the consequences come, whether they are good or bad.

And this just about wraps up for October. A quick word for Catoctin students, Crucible the play by Arthur Miller is being put up this fall, congratulations to all who made the cast! The play is about the Salem witch trials of 1692. It is rather dark and scary, but I’m positive it will make a wonderful play, especially with the cast picked.

Finally, I hope to see a lot of great costumes for Halloween (mine’s a surprise…) and we’ll be watching for those who try to take too much candy… avoid the garage at all costs. Be safe, but have fun this Halloween!